Stop the War on Children

Released: Monday, March 04, 2019

This General Assembly session, we saw the war on children stripped bare. The hidden effort to brainwash, violate, or outright kill our youth has revealed itself at times, but this year marks a new low. In addition to Governor Northam’s and Delegate Kathy Tran’s statements publicly endorsing infanticide, another dangerous front opened to sacrifice Virginia’s children.

Legislators’ repeated attempts to ban counseling that helps minors deal with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion defy logic, scientific evidence, and God’s Word. These blind guides inexplicably claim on the one hand that biological gender is fluid, while on the other that sexual attraction is immutable. They demand trained professionals go against their expertise, violate their conscience, and withhold treatment that would help sexually confused minors—many of whom struggle with shame, depression, and even suicidal ideation.

This year, Senator Siobhan S. Dunnavant (R) (a licensed OB-GYN in the Richmond area) led the charge. She introduced SB 1773 to ban so-called “conversion therapy”—a straw-man term that typically lumps helpful treatments together with shock therapy and other extreme measures.

Senator Steve Newman deftly dealt the effort a setback. The “stay gay” bill stalled out in committee as he advanced his own bill, SB 1778, that would have protected talk therapy—and the explicit right of patients to seek help (and practitioners to provide it) to reduce unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion.

But that’s not the end of this cabal’s misguided agenda to ruin the lives of the children they’re supposed to protect and serve. Professional licensing boards are stealthily attempting an end run around the legislature—and they must be called out. Earlier this year, the Virginia Board of Psychology voted to start a process to change their standards to revoke the license of any of their members who engage in “conversion therapy.” In plain language, they will ruin the career of any psychologist who doesn’t unequivocally affirm a minor’s unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion as “healthy” regardless of the parents’ or child’s desires.

Four other professional boards are expected to follow suit and muzzle or revoke the license of every Bible-believing psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor, nurse, social worker, or other professional who does anything other than affirm a struggling child’s same-sex attraction or gender confusion.

It cuts against the religious and free-speech rights of every professional in this vital situation, who otherwise could give potentially life-saving care for a child who NEEDS help.

Each of these professional boards have an open comment period. We’ll keep you apprised of how you can weigh in. But the first step is letting others know about this insanity. Please forward this article to others who care about the lives of our young people in the commonwealth.